“2 Captains: 1 destined to be a Bajoran religious figure and war hero, and the other to lead an Odyssey across the Galaxy. This is going to be a challenge! Computer lock and load!”

“Confirmed. Hybrid beam weaponry and Quantum torpedoes online.”

The Operative's ship dropped out of warp and waited for the 2 ships to come to it...

5 minutes earlier – USS Enterprise NCC 1701 F

Commander Natima Dacet was in her quarters meditating. She was thinking over the events that had occurred since the Enterprise had travelled through time. 'Oralius, guide me in this situation so that the right timeline may be restored' she thought. Though she wasn't usually a follower of the Oralian Way, at least not in an orthodox manner, she did believe that there was more to the universe than what scientists said.

Her thoughts then turned to the nature of the Commonwealth. Both in its state at this moment in time, and in her origin time, both times being times of peace, though the threats that would emerge over the next 2 decades would change many things in the Commonwealth. Compared to the Cardassian Union of this time in history it was a paradise, but there were many aspects of the Commonwealth that she did not understand, even after 4 years at Starfleet Academy and another 8 years on the Enterprise.
How was it that after the Dominion War and everything that had happened during that conflict that the Commonwealth was willing to help Cardassia recover? Provided aid? Rebuilt their infrastructure?
Even in the difficulties that began 5 years after the end of the Dominion War, the Commonwealth continued to help Cardassia past its difficulties.

When she had applied to join Starfleet Academy she did not know what to expect, there being very few Cardassians in Starfleet as of yet. In her first year she had studied Earth's history, trying to find any parallels to Cardassian history. The closest that she could find was the Soviet Union and its successor states. But even they had not become as regimented as Cardassia had been prior to the Dominion War. (She had read 1984 and found that Orwell had described an extreme version... She was thankful that Cardassia had not gone too far in that direction!)
She had returned home when she last had leave and found that Cardassia was still struggling with the implementation of democracy. The Commonwealth was an utopia by comparison. (It had its issues, like Section 31, dark secrets being held by many member worlds and legacies of failed projects from the past 2 centuries, but it was still a better system by at least an order of magnitude.)
The Commonwealth's government and Starfleet as part of the Commonwealth had oversight bodies to prevent abuses of power. (Oversight on top of oversight in some cases and indeed on many member worlds, including Earth.)
All levels of government were democratically elected, and appointed positions were filled via the votes of the leglislatures.
Natima had found this consfusing as the work of government could get held up in the various committees. She had also found that Starfleet Command was wracked with indecision at times. (Indeed she had found that the last time that they had unanimus agreement was during the Borg Crisis of 2381!)

This is more like a fragment than a completed story. But it's an interesting fragment, which leaves you wanting to know who these people are, and how the Federation came to be displaced by the Commonwealth.

This is more like a fragment than a completed story. But it's an interesting fragment, which leaves you wanting to know who these people are, and how the Federation came to be displaced by the Commonwealth.

This is more like a fragment than a completed story. But it's an interesting fragment, which leaves you wanting to know who these people are, and how the Federation came to be displaced by the Commonwealth.